Review of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Where do I even start with a series like this? It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me think about how far I’d come as a person and how much more I had to learn, and it even made me pump my fist into the air with excitement. It’s slow, ponderous and heartwarming until it becomes exhilarating and jaw-dropping in scale. It has some of the most gorgeous fantasy art I’ve seen in my life, some of the most loveable characters I’ve ever spent my time with, and some of the most dynamic action sequences in all of anime. Evan Call knocks itout of the park once again with one of the best soundtracks since Violet Evergarden, but the part of the series that impresses me the most is the use of Himmel and the party of heroes: a lesser story would have structured the main narrative around Himmel’s quest, but instead, Frieren understands that a moment in our lives is the most powerful and the most bittersweet once it has become a memory. That Frieren has the ability to just randomly cut away to some sweet little joke or speech from Himmel, and needs only that to warm my heart or make me bawl, is something that is enough to make this breach my anime top ten for the first time since 2022.